Nightmare
by Carol3059
Summary: Alec's having strange dreams...
1. Chapter 1

Note: This is set after Freak Nation. It's going to be M/A eventually, I think. It is NOT a crossover.

Don't own Dark Angel.

Max watched the action unfold below her. It was surprising. Not the fight, but who was winning. She had never really watched Alec fight before, but he was good. Really good. He didn't do the aerial stuff like she did, but he was very fast and changed his tactics to compensate for his opponent so fluidly it was startling. She toyed with the idea of challenging him. She dismissed the idea though. They had become friends and she didn't want to create any more bad blood between them. It had only been a few months since the siege and things were still dangerous. She needed Alec there. Not just as a second, though, which is what he had technically become. Everyone liked Alec. He was so good at smoothing things over and he seemed to be the only one who could calm some of the more hot-headed people here. Also, she sometimes thought that Alec kept her sane. When being locked up in here with nowhere to go, not being able to be around Logan, and having to be constantly aware of danger she sometimes thought that it would drive her stark raving mad. Trading mild insults or watching a movie or TV or just having a drink with Alec and sometimes Joshua were her only breaks from the constant stress. Alec lived with Joshua again in one of the buildings that they had turned into mildly livable. Joshua had become just as protective and brotherly to Alec as he had to Max, and she was glad for it. Alec needed someone to look out for him. Her gaze lingered back to him. He had won the fight and was chatting with Mole. He clapped Mole and started towards her. Vaulting up next to her and sitting down.

"Hey, Maxie."

"It's Max." She said. He jumped, startled. She frowned at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." He said, leaning a little against the railing and staring out for a moment. She studied him for a moment, and for the first time noticed there were dark circles under his eyes.

"Alec?"

"I'm fine." He said a little to sharply. Then he rubbed his forehead. "Sorry." Max shrugged, really worried now. She really hoped that he was just a little stir-crazy. God knew, she was. She was really glad they were closer friends now. A year ago, he definitely wouldn't have apologized for snapping at her. She snapped out of her thoughts when he went to get up.

"Alec." He turned to her, a look of foreboding on his face, and she had to fight down another grin. She could practically see his thoughts.

"Look, if you ever want to talk, I'm here." His eyes widened only a fraction before going back to that impassive look.

"Thanks." He said, walking away. She smiled a little, still worried.

Alec lay on his stomach in bed, flipping the channels on the old TV. He knew he should sleep, but he really didn't want to. He could hear Joshua snoring in the next room. He'd been having weird dreams lately. He was also a little confused with himself. Mostly with his reaction to Max when she'd told him not to call her Maxie. What the hell was weird about that? She'd told him not to call her that a hundred times. He sighed.

"Fuck it." He said quietly, throwing the remote on the couch. He needed to sleep.

Alec twitched in his sleep when the dream started. It didn't focus on one thing, just skipped around a lot.

He was little. Running through the house, when someone grabbed him, lifting him up. He wasn't scared though, as the person set him on his hip and tickled his sides...

He sat in a kitchen. Someone was in the room with him and he could smell something baking...

He felt a hand reach out and smack him upside the head. He looked up...

He sat on the stairs, listening to them fight. He felt tears making tracks down his face...

His hands were on her throat, squeezing. Anger surged through him. She struggled to breathe, to get him off her. He felt satisfaction grow when her struggles weakened and stopped "I'm sorry, Janey..."

Alec woke up with a start. He looked around, feeling slightly panicked. _What the hell was that? _He reached up and ran a hand across his face and felt wetness on his cheeks. He stopped short and stared at his hands.

Note: Argh. I'm not totally happy with this chapter. Especially the Max POV stuff. But I needed a way for her to watch him and get her thoughts on him.


	2. Confined Spaces

Confined Spaces

Alec walked aimlessly through TC. He hadn't been able to get any sleep after he had woken up from that dream. He really didn't know what it meant and it was driving him crazy. Maybe he was going crazy. It was in his genes, after all. He had already gone through his dreams. They were a little vague and he couldn't lock down a particular image. The images of people were to blurry. He came to headquarters and stopped before he got inside. Logan was inside, with Max. He felt a growl growing in his throat. A fury came up inside him. _What the hell was he doing here? _Alec stepped back before he went through the door and blinked. _What the hell was that? _Maybe it was time to reevaluate that whole going crazy theory.

---------------

"Yeah." Max said to Logan. "We'll need to go on a supply run soon. I'll take Alec with me." Logan looked over at her.

"Your stealing these things?" Max sighed.

"We don't have a choice at this point, Logan." Logan just nodded. Max looked up when Alec walked through the door.

"Hey." Max said. "I need you to come with me on a heist tonight." She said, looking up.

"Fine." Alec said shortly, staring at Logan. Max peered at him closely, and wondered if he'd gotten any sleep last night.

"Alec, are you okay?" She asked, coming closer to him. His eyes snapped to hers.

"I'm fine." He said again, his gaze drifting to Logan again. "What's he doing here?"

"I just came to see Max." Logan said. Alec sneered at him.

"Right." Max frowned at Alec.

"Are you sure your okay? Because I could get someone else to go tonight."

"I said I'm fine." He snapped. "I'll see you there." He looked at Logan. "You shouldn't be here. You don't belong here." He turned and walked out. Max stared after him. _That_ was strange. She had never seen Alec act like that before.

"Maybe you should ask someone else to go." Logan suggested. "Alec doesn't seem like himself."

"Naw." Max waved it away. "He wont let it interfere. Besides, I trust Alec more than anyone else here."

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Everything had gone fine at first. They had gotten in fine. Alec seemed to be back to himself, too. Cracking jokes the whole time that made Max want to slap him upside his head. Everything was fine, until they got stuck again.

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"Hey, Max, does this one seem smaller to you?" Alec asked, trying hard to keep the waver from his voice. He must not have succeeded because Max gave him a strange look over her shoulder.  
"No." She said. "Quit playing around." Alec shook his head. It sure seemed smaller to him. He looked around the tiny closet they had taken refuse in. Where the walls moving? He felt his fear growing. He put his hands on each wall to reassure himself that the walls were _not _moving, but that only served to remind him how small the space was. He closed his eyes. _Get it together. _He opened them again, but the fear wasn't gone. It was getting worse.

"Max." He whispered. The waver was stronger. "Max, I can't stay here."

"Shut up." Max snapped. If she wasn't distracted she might have noticed that Alec was panicking slightly. _They weren't ever getting out. _The thought rang through his head. He was painfully aware that Max was in front of him. That she was blocking the door. The only way out.

"Max." He closed his eyes. "Max, please." He was aware that he was begging and that his voice had risen with the plea, but he couldn't help it. He _couldn't _stay here. Max looked through the slits and growled. One of the guards had heard and was coming towards their hiding place.

"Way to go Alec." She whispered furiously. "Looks like we're fighting."

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They ran down the street towards Max's bike. They had had to abandon the job. One of the guards had tripped an alarm, and they had ended up getting shot at. As soon as they reached her bike, Max turned angrily to Alec.

"What the hell was that?!" Her anger died, though, when she caught the confusion and shock on Alec's face.

"I don't know."

Note: I know, the whole trapped in the closet scene has been done. By the show, for one. But this one was a little different, wasn't it? It was the best way to get this scene.


	3. Sick and Tired

Sick and Tired

Alec lay in bed. He was bored, exhausted, and sick of trying to make sense of the dreams he'd been having and the freak out on the heist. He didn't understand it. He wasn't claustrophobic, he knew that for a fact. The conversation with Max when they had gotten back to TC hadn't gone exactly well, either. The fact that she had 'suspended' him from outside missions until he could work out why he had freaked out galled a little. She'd been _sorry_ and really he did understand her reasoning, but it still pissed him off a little. It pissed him off incredibly that he had freaked out in the first place. He was a soldier, dammit. He'd had twenty years of training and he'd freaked out over being stuck in a damn closet.

Every time he thought about the dreams and what they might mean, he came back to Manticore. It could have been something they did to him. He remembered every aspect of his life in perfect clarity thanks to the photographic memory. He _knew_ that those dreams weren't memories, no matter how much they felt like it. So maybe Manticore messed with his head someway he didn't know about.

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Max chewed her lip worriedly. She was worried about Alec. He had been extremely quiet when they had gotten back to TC. Not himself. She understood that though. He seemed just as confused as her about what had happened. She didn't understand his reaction. It wasn't as if they hadn't been stuck in a small space before.

"Max." Logan broke her out of her thoughts.

"Hm?"

"So, what happened? With the job? Did Alec screw up?" Max hesitated and for some reason felt a little angry at the question.

"No, Alec didn't screw up." She said. "We were seen, we had to bail. It happens." She didn't know why, but she didn't want to tell Logan the real reason why the job had gone bust. It felt like a betrayal to Alec. Logan simply nodded, accepting her answer. She sighed, going back to work. She hated having to ban Alec from outside missions. But they couldn't take the risk that something like this might happen again. They had been lucky this time, but next time someone could get hurt. Fact was, she felt a lot more comfortable going on those missions with Alec than any of the other X-5's or 6's in TC. She ignore the urge to go check on Alec to see if he was okay, and sat down to check the supply list.

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He sat on the stairs. They were fighting again. He could hear them screaming at each other.

"You bitch! How could you?! You destroyed us!" He flinched when he heard the sound of a slap. It always led to this. He sat on the stairs, silent tears running from his eyes, and wished that they could go back to before.

"You want to know how?!" He heard her scream back. "This is how! I didn't destroy us! You did!" He heard her grunt from what he was sure was a punch. He wanted to yell for them to stop, but he was terrified of what would happen if he did. One more grunt of pain from her and it did stop. He sat, frozen in place until muddy work boots came to a stop before him. He looked up...

Alec shot up in bed. His heart was beating frantically. He could still feel the remnants of terror racing through his body. He tried to examine the dream. To find a face, but he couldn't. He reached up to run a hand across his own face and realized he'd been crying again. He lay back in bed and groaned. He felt even more exhausted than he had before he'd fallen asleep.

Note: Sorry if the dream sequence was a little confusing, but I couldn't use names. Hope I made it clear enough.


	4. Desperate

Note: This chapter is a little longer than my others.

_Desperate_

Alec looked down at the supply list before him. Blearily he realized that he had read the last line three times. He threw the list on the table and rubbed a hand across his eyes. He felt a little bit like screaming in frustration. Or maybe hitting something. He had been avoiding Joshua for the last few days(which really wasn't an easy task seeing as they were roommates) because of the inevitable questions that Joshua would ask. He'd already heard to many comments about the way he looked. Most of them seemed to afraid to actually ask what was wrong though. He was grateful for that. It didn't take someone as perceptive as Joshua to figure out something was wrong with him, though. He was well aware that he looked like shit, and that he hadn't been acting like himself.

Alec sighed and got up. He wasn't really getting anything done, and other people could do this stuff. But he really couldn't sit still. He couldn't drown himself in booze and women like he usually did, not when he was stuck in this city. So the only option he had come up with was to work. But the sleep depravation was making that difficult. He cursed silently to himself when Max entered the building. If there was one person he did not want to talk to right now even more that Joshua, it was her. He wondered if he could get out of here without having to actually talk to her. No such luck. He cringed when her gaze zeroed in on him and she strode in his direction.

"Alec, we need to talk." She said when she stopped beside him.

"Oh, yeah? about what?" She grabbed his hand and started to drag him towards her office. She pushed him through the door and slammed it. She pushed him down in one of the chairs.

"Damn, Maxie." He said, forcing a smirk. "I always knew you liked it rough." She didn't answer, instead sat down in front of him.

"When," She asked, her voice hinting at anger, "was the last time you slept?"

"I'm fine." He said forcefully, looking away. She reached out and gripped his chin forcing him to look her in the eyes. He saw it, concern, deep in her brown eyes. He jerked out of her grip and stood up abruptly. He had to close his eyes for a second when the world spun a little. He gripped the back of the chair to steady himself.

"Alec-"

"I'm fine." He said again, opening his eyes. Max stood and threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Your not fine." She said angrily. She stood in front of him and pushed him back down embarrassingly easy. "I'm not going to just let this fly. Not this time." He gritted his teeth and felt his own burst of anger. "You have people who count on you here Alec. You have a job to do and you can't do it when you can barely stand." He felt his anger growing at that statement.

"Is that it?" He growled. "I can do my job fine, Max." He stood up again, and turned towards the door.

"Alec, you can't go on like this." Max called as he opened the door. Alec ignored her and slipped out. He strode out of the building and made it down the street. He went into one of the more decrepit buildings. He needed to be alone and knew that most of the others avoided these buildings. He was severely pissed, and he wasn't sure why but the guilt trip Max had laid on him about his job pissed him off worse than anything. _Was that all she wanted him here for? _He blinked. _What else could she want you here for? _He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He needed to sleep. Without dreaming. There was only two options. Either he could try and sleep and hope that he wouldn't have any more dreams, or...He sighed exasperated, and headed for the door and down the street.

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Max stood at her desk for a while after Alec left. She was angry and frustrated. Why did he always have to do this? She understood his reasoning. She used to be the same way, after all. Actually talking about what was bothering him was foreign to him. She had known him for over a year and knew barely anything about his past. Granted most of the time she had known him, they had been fighting. In fact it was only a couple of months before they had been barricaded in this city when they had actually become friends.

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Alec stared at the sedative that he had gotten. He turned it over in his hand. He couldn't believe he was actually doing this. He hated taking drugs. He'd had enough shoved at him at Manticore. This was a definite last resort, but he desperately didn't want to have any more of those dreams. Still, he hated not being in control, and he wouldn't wake up for several hours if he took the sedative. He had taken out of med bay. Thankfully no one was there. He really didn't want to explain why he needed it. He had taken one that he knew for a fact would ware off in about three or four hours. He couldn't bring himself to take something that would knock him out for more than that. He sighed, and with a feeling of trepidation he couldn't get rid of took the sedative.

It was several hours later when the dreams hit. Alec moved restlessly in his sleep as they started, but he couldn't wake up.

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Logan walked up to TC's command center. He hadn't seen Max in a couple of days, not since after the heist that she and Alec had went on. She'd been a little distant lately when he had talked to her. He went into her office. She was sitting behind her desk, looking over some reports.

"Hey." He said. She smiled up at him. He tried to ignore the fact that the smile was a little forced.

"Hey."

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He watched her sleep. She was beautiful. He brushed some of her long dark hair off her face. She opened her eyes and smiled up at him. "I love you, Janey." She giggled and slapped his arm. "Don't call me Janey." She said.

He stood in the doorway. He couldn't move. Couldn't believe what he was seeing. He watched the two off them. A growl came out of his mouth. She looked over at him from under another man. "Oh, god."

He wrapped both of his hands around her throat. He squeezed. She pounded on his chest, and struggled against his stronger grip.

He woke up. He didn't shoot up in bed like he had before. He got up slowly and put on his shoes. He needed to see her. He smiled.

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Max sat talking with Logan when someone burst into her office. She looked up, startled.

"Alec!" She said. "What are you doing here?" He stared at her for a moment. Her brow creased. Something was wrong. There was a strange light in his green eyes. Alec's eyes snapped to Logan.

"What's he doing here?" He growled. Max's frown grew.

"What's wrong with you?" He walked closer to her. Fury radiated off him in waves.

"I asked you a question." She searched his eyes, and turned to Logan.

"Logan, you need to leave." Logan watched Alec warily.

"I'm not leaving you-"

"Logan, please. Leave." Logan hesitated for a second before leaving the room. She turned back to Alec. He stalked closer to her and she found herself against the wall.

"Alec, what the hell is your problem?"

"Your doing it again." He said quietly.

"Alec-" One of his hands came up and rested on her shoulder, pushing her against the wall. "Alec, don't make me hurt you." To her surprise, he smiled sadly at her.

"You did this." He said, his hand moving to her throat. "You ruined us." And then his hand was squeezing around her windpipe, cutting off her air.


	5. Killer in Me

Note: I had a couple of people say this story was confusing or didn't make sense. I explain were I was going with this in this chapter. It is kind of weird. Anyways...

Killer in Me

"Alec-" Her words cut off as her air did. His hands squeezed around her windpipe. She brought her own hands up to pull him off, but she couldn't. Her eyes narrowed. So, it turns out he was stronger than her. Not wanting to take any chances, she brought her knee up, landing a low blow. The hands around her throat slackened and released, and he dropped to his knees. She brought her fist down on the side of his head with just enough strength to knock him out. Max sat down herself after he fell to the floor. She brought a hand to her throat. She sat staring at him for a few minutes before running to the door to get help.

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Alec woke up slowly and looked around. He frowned when he saw bars. He was in a cell. Max was on the outside slumped in a chair and clearly asleep. His frown deepened and he searched his memory, trying to figure out why he was here. Bleary images and emotions came to him. Shock set in when he realized what he had done to Max. He watched her for a moment. He couldn't believe he had hurt her. What the hell was wrong with him?

"Max, I'm sorry."

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Max woke up with a start when she heard someone say her name. She looked up into Alec's eyes. She stood warily.

"Alec." She said, staring into his eyes, searching for that strange light that had appeared when he had attacked her. Thankfully it wasn't there. She only saw concern and remorse. "I take it you've snapped out of it?" She said. He nodded.

"I'm so sorry, Max." She nodded.

"You have to tell me everything now, Alec. You don't have a choice this time." Alec nodded and began telling her about his dreams.

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Alec lay back down on the floor after Max had left. He had told her his pieced together dreams. They were all about some guy. He had gotten that the guys parents had fought a lot for some reason. That he had killed his girlfriend when he found out she cheated on him. He had felt the emotions behind the dreams. He didn't understand why he was having them, or why he had attacked Max. He sat up suddenly at the thought of Max. Whatever this was it was taking him over, literally. He had felt the love, however twisted that love was, for the girl in his dreams. And now it was focusing solely on Max. It could just be that Alec was around Max more than any other woman these days. _But it isn't and you know it. _Alec growled in frustration. But he considered what it told him anyways. The conclusion that came with made him shake his head. _NO, no no no. It can't be that. Even I'm not that big of a masochist. And why am I even thinking about this? I've got bigger problems right now. _Alec shook his head to clear it, deciding to work that out after this was over. This definitely wasn't the time.

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Max went strait to someone she hoped could help. One of the medics in TC. The woman, Jen, had worked in Psy-Op's while at Manticore and Max was hoping she would have answers as to what was going on. She found the woman in med bay and told her everything. Jen frowned after Max finished.

"It could be past memories." She said finally. Max shook her head.

"Alec says that he's never done anything he's been dreaming about. Besides, he's having dreams of growing up with actual parents." Jen shook her head.

"That's not what I meant, Max." She sighed. "Look, some of the soldiers I worked with complained of something like this before. I don't mean past memories as in their past. I mean like blood memories. Memories from who they were made from." Max stared at the woman.

"You mean Alec's having memories of one of the donors Manticore used to make him? How's that possible?" Jen shrugged.

"After everything that you've seen, don't you think anything's possible?" She asked. "Anyways, it's not from one of the donors. The donor. Sure they used animal DNA on you guys. But they also had to use humans as well. When I was back at Manticore, some of the soldiers complained about it, but it was never this extensive. Mostly it was just faded images in their dreams. Manticore watched them closer but they didn't see it as a real threat." Max chewed her lip.

"So, how do we help Alec? I mean, how do I get him back to normal?"

"Don't know." She pondered it for a moment. "You know maybe it's like unfinished business or something." Max frowned.

"Unfinished business?"

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Max paced in Joshua's old house an hour later. After checking on Alec, she had come here. She'd told Logan mostly everything, and asked him to look up find the guy that Alec was dreaming about. It was taking forever, mostly because they didn't even have a name. Max had thought that the guy probably looked like Alec, and they knew the girlfriends name. Max knew that Logan was a little bit angry about what had happened with her and Alec. He turned to her while his computer was searching.

"Max, what are you going to do if we don't find anything?"

"We'll find something. We have to." She said forcefully.

"We'll look, but Max if we don't..." She looked up at him, her eyes flashing.

"Don't say it, Logan."

"Max, he's dangerous. He proved that. If you can't find a way to snap him out of this, what are you going to do?"

"I'm not killing Alec, Logan if that's what your thinking. I can't." Logan opened his mouth to respond when the search on his computer ended. He and Max both turned to it. They sifted through the reports that popped up, until Logan opened a particular one. Max gasped. A picture popped up of a man. He didn't look exactly like Alec, but the resemblance was there. He could have been Alec's father. She read the report with Logan. It was a police report. The guy, a David Johnson, had been killed in 2006 when he had attempted to strangle his wife, Jane Danvers-Johnson. The wife had fought back, it turns out. She'd stabbed her husband with a kitchen knife during the attempt. Max stood back in disgust.

"So, is that his unfinished business?" She asked, her disgust growing. She shook her head as she thought about this piece of information. Maybe she could get Alec back after all.

"Thanks, Logan." She said abruptly, sprinting out of the room.

"Wait, Max!-" But she was already gone.

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Max was nearly down to Alec's cell when the startling realization of what she was planning hit her full force and she stopped short in her tracks. She was really about to risk everything for him. For Alec. And she hadn't given it a second thought. In fact she was still fully prepared to do just that. She smiled in wonder. The realization hit her full force and she couldn't help but to smile. God, she was such an idiot. He smile slipped, however, when she thought about were he was.

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Alec looked up at her when she'd finished telling him what she'd found out. She watched him as he closed his eyes.

"His mom cheated." He mumbled. "They got divorced. He always blamed her." Alec's eyes found hers. "His dad wasn't exactly nice after that." Max nodded and pulled out the keys to his cell.

"Max, what are you doing? Are you crazy?"

"Maybe." She said to herself. "I know a way to get rid of him." Alec looked up, surprised.

"Really, how? And couldn't you tell me in here? I really don't want to hurt anyone else." Max smiled a little, and unlocked the door.

"I've been talking to Logan." She said. Alec's eyes snapped to hers.

"Max, what are you doing?"

"He seems to think that this isn't worth it."

"He does, does he?" Alec said, the growl barely evident in his voice. He blinked and she could see him fighting for control.

"Yeah. I've been thinking. Maybe he's right. I mean, you could leave Seattle. Leave me with Logan, Alec. He'll take care of me." Alec moved from the cell and closer to her. He backed her into the wall. She felt a shimmer of fear, but kept going. "I don't need you." She said. "Hell, I don't even like you." He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You've been with him?" He asked, moving the hand closer to her throat.

"Yes." She said firmly. He put pressure on her throat.

"You destroyed us, you bitch." And then she couldn't breathe. He pressed harder over her windpipe. She struggled, but didn't use any of her transgenic strength. She struggled like a normal girl would. He smiled when her struggles lessened and stopped, and he finally released her.  
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Alec snapped back to himself when she slid to the floor. His legs collapsed out from under him and he fell hard on his butt. He stared at her in horror. He was alone now. What just happened had exorcised the other from him, but at what cost? He brought his knees up and buried his face in his hands. He felt tears coming down his cheeks. He flinched back suddenly when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up. He found himself staring into Max's brown eyes.

"Max." He breathed, and then he was hugging her to him. "Oh, god. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Alec." He couldn't help but notice the hoarseness of her voice. "It was my plan. I knew what I was doing." Alec pulled back and stared at her.

"I think we've been hanging out to much." He said. "Because that was a really stupid plan."

"Yeah, well, it takes a lot more to kill a transgenic than a normal." Alec shook his head.

"And what if I had used some of that transgenic strength. I could have crushed your windpipe." Max looked down, and fidgeted a little.

"Yeah, well. I couldn't loose you. And this is the only thing I could come up with." Alec gave a start in surprise. She looked up at him and smiled. Then she leaned in and brushed a light kiss on his lips.

"Max, what are you doing?"

"What I want to do. What I should have done a long time ago." She said, kissing him deeply. He leaned into the kiss. Everything else washed away. Guilt and worry and pain. All that was left was her. He couldn't believe he hadn't realized it before. _Your such a moron, _the last thing that floated through his head before conscious thought was blown away by the heat of the kiss.

Note: I know, this story's a little weird, huh? Oh, well. Hope it wasn't to bad.


End file.
